that the
Princess should recover.

'The day on which Weissenborn and Bartenstein returned from their
expedition, it was announced that her Highness the Princess was much
worse; that night the report through the town was that she was at the
agony: and that night the unfortunate creature was endeavouring to make
her escape.

'She had unlimited confidence in the French chamber-woman who attended
her, and between her and this woman the plan of escape was arranged. The
Princess took her jewels in a casket; a private door, opening from
one of her rooms and leading into the outer gate, it was said, of
the palace, was discovered for her: and a letter was brought to her,
purporting to be from the Duke, her father-in-law, and stating that a
carriage and horses had been provided, and would take her to B----: the
territory where she might communicate with her family and be safe.

'The unhappy lady, confiding in her guardian, set out on the expedition.
The passages wound through the walls of the modern part of the palace
and abutted in effect at the old Owl Tower, as it was called, on the
outer wall: the tower was pulled down afterwards, and for good reason.

'At a certain place the candle, which the chamberwoman was carrying,
went out; and the Princess would have screamed with terror, but her hand
was seized, and a voice cried "Hush!" The next minute a man in a
mask (it was the Duke himself) rushed forward, gagged her with a
handkerchief, her hands and legs were bound, and she was carried
swooning with terror into a vaulted room, where she was placed by a
person there waiting, and tied in an arm-chair. The same mask who had
gagged her, came and bared her neck and said, "It had best be done now
she has fainted."

'Perhaps it would have been as well; for though she recovered from her
swoon, and her confessor, who was present, came forward and endeavoured
to prepare her for the awful deed which was about to be done upon her,
and for the state into which she was about to enter, when she came to
herself it was only to scream like a maniac, to curse the Duke as a
butcher and tyrant, and to call upon Magny, her dear Magny.

'At this the Duke said, quite calmly, "May God have mercy on her sinful
soul!" He, the confessor, and Geldern, who were present, went down on
their knees; and, as his Highness dropped his handkerchief, Weissenborn
fell down in a fainting fit; while MONSIEUR DE STRASBOURG, taking the
back hair in his hand, separa